A literature review of lean manufacturing

Shaman Gupta and Sanjiv Kumar Jain

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Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published online: 27 Aug 2013.
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To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2013.825074
PGE 247

There is a vast literature available on lean manufacturing, which gives a wide view of previous practices
and research across the world.

A framework for lean manufacturing

implementation
Sherif Mostafa, JantaneeDumrak&Hassan Soltan
Pages |65 Received 25 Jun 2013, Accepted 31 Oct 2013, Published online: 11 Dec 2013

Human element is an inherent integral component of the lean manufacturing system. Poor
mind-set and misunderstanding of lean concept strongly restricts the lean implementation
process and reduces the expected benefits for the organisation. This notion led to an
investigation on 28 lean implementation initiatives. This study discovered five categories of lean
implementation initiatives. Efforts like roadmaps and frameworks were found to have attempted
to address the human factor. However, the most successful initiatives were those introduced as
implementation frameworks, as proved in this paper. Generally, a robust lean initiative is that
being well-structured, tooled and comprehensive enough to be apprehensive and
understandable to the practitioners. In addition, it should focus on both human and technical
factors in parallel manner all times. That in turn enables getting lean benefits within short time
and ensures continuous improvement. It was evident that nine common success factors have
been addressed across the literature. However, none of the initiatives studied contains all of the
nine success factors. The lessons-learned review and documentation factor are highly omitted.
The expert team building, and lean monitoring and controlling factors are rarely included

Classification scheme for lean manufacturing tools

S. J. Pavnaskar, J. K. Gershenson& A. B. Jambekar
International Journal of Production Research Vol. 41 Iss. 13,2003
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0020754021000049817?src=recsys

For the past few years almost every manufacturing industry has been trying to get 'lean'. A headlong rush
to become lean also resulted in many misapplications of existing lean manufacturing tools often due to
inadequate understanding of the purpose of tools. While tool descriptions abound, there is no way
systematically to link a manufacturing organization to its problems and to the possible tools to eliminate
these problems. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a classification scheme to serve as a link
between manufacturing waste problems and lean manufacturing tools. A manufacturing organization can
then match its manufacturing wastes with the appropriate lean manufacturing tools. The classification of
existing knowledge is often the first step in moving from a practice to a science. This classification
scheme systematically organizes lean manufacturing tools and metrics according to their level of
abstraction, appropriate location of application of the tool in the organization, whether it addresses
management waste or activity waste, the type of resource waste it addresses, and whether it identifies
waste, measures waste, eliminates waste, or a combination of the three. We have organized 101 lean
manufacturing tools and metrics using this classification scheme. We have also described some common
manufacturing problems using this classification scheme and shown the problem-tool connection through
examples. The classification scheme is not intended as a decision-making tool, i.e. it does not decide if
something is a waste. However, the proposed scheme does an excellent job of classifying all well-known
lean manufacturing tools and metrics and suggests lean manufacturing tools and metrics that will help to
address manufacturing problems. This classification scheme will assist companies trying to become lean
and can serve as a foundation for research into the science of lean.

A Review on Lean Manufacturing Implementation Techniques

R.Sundar, A.N.Balaji, R.M.SatheeshKumar

Procedia Engineering
Volume 97, 2014, Pages 1875-1885

The concept of lean manufacturing was developed for maximizing the resource utilization through
minimization of waste, later on lean was formulated in response to the fluctuating and competitive
business environment. Due to rapidly changing business environment the organizations are forced to
face challenges and complexities. Any organization whether manufacturing or service oriented to
survive may ultimately depend on its ability to systematically and continuously respond to these
changes for enhancing the product value. Therefore value adding process is necessary to achieve this
perfection; hence implementing a lean manufacturing system is becoming a core competency for any
type of organizations to sustain. The majority of the study focuses on single aspect of lean element, only
very few focuses on more than one aspect of lean elements, but for the successful implementation of
lean the organisation had to focuses on all the aspects such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM),Cellular
Manufacturing (CM), U-line system, Line Balancing, Inventory control, Single Minute Exchange of Dies
(SMED), Pull System, Kanban, Production Levelling etc., In this paper, an attempt has been made to
develop a lean route map for the organization to implement the lean manufacturing system. Analyses of
the exploratory survey results are summarized in this paper to illustrate the implementation sequence
of lean elements in volatile business environment and the finding of this review was synthesized to
develop a unified theory for implementation of lean elements.

Conclusion of this survey reveals that the successful Lean Manufacturing System implementation
needs integration and simultaneous implementation of Lean elements along with proper sequence.
The survey also proposes the detailed implementation Road Map which gives a unified theory for Lean
Manufacturing System implementation. Thus the proposed implementation structure reduces the
implementation duration and reduces manufacturing system divergence. As a result it is proposed that
the Lean Manufacturing System can be sustained in competitive business environment. Future research
should try to find Scheduling structures in-line with EPEI pull system by consideringthe whole lean
elements.

M. Bevilacqua F.E. Ciarapica I. De Sanctis G. Mazzuto C. Paciarotti , (2015),"A Changeover Time

Reduction through anintegration of lean practices: a case study from pharmaceutical sector", Assembly
Automation, Vol. 35 Iss 1 pp. 22 - 34Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/AA-05-
2014-035
Page 32

In this study, lean methodologies were applied to prepare a standardprocedure for changeover
operations on defined machines. Theimplementation was conducted according to a seven-
stagemethodology proposed by the authors who drew upon typical SMED techniques. Lean
manufacturing can be efficiently applied to the packaging field in the pharmaceutical sector. Packaging
line capacity, which is the object of the study, has been increased, thus avoiding the need for
investments in new equipment or in personnel. An increase of the capacity brings to the assembly line
an increase of flexibility and a reduction of the labor cost compared with the previous situation. The
application of the SMED technique has brought a reduction of 61.5 per cent of the medium changeover
time. Moreover, the implementation of the Kanban and 5S technique resulted in a small decrease of the
meantime (2.6 per cent), but consistently reduced the standard deviation of process time (29.1 per
cent). It will allow the specific pharmaceutical plant to manage a higher volume and greater variety of
products, and it will assure a better satisfaction of the market demand; at the same time, it will reduce
the batch size and increase the frequency. All redundant and unnecessary activities have been
eliminated. The production line activities are better organized and the operators have been trained to
ensure the reliability and standardization of the changeover process. The medium OEE value is increased
from 18 to 26 per cent; this growth is attributable to the implementation of TPM in the company and to
the reduction time changeover which was one of the main causes of the OEE reduction. This paper has
an important role in the pharmaceutical field; it provides a methodology that involves variety of lean

tools to reduce the changeover time and increment the OEE in a field where the production process is
strictly influenced by GMPs (defined by the Code of Federal Regulation). Theme thodology provides an
excellent tool that can be utilized in the pharmaceutical field, where quality and regulations play a
fundamental role in the production process. The time reduction of changeover activities would, support
company growth and ensure a measurable and long-term competitive advantage. Future research could
validate using other case studies the proposed stages and method used in this paper.

AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR Applying LEAN MANUF ACTURING AND

OTHER STRATEGIES IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION ENVIRONMENTS
By Gregory Brandon Stump
Copyright © Gregory Brandon Stump 2008
Page 110-111

In closing, this research has proven that lean manufacturing is not simply a tool for companies with
stable demand and a strict definition of takt time. Lean manufacturing is a very strong and robust
strategy that when properly applied can and will increase the performance of at least some types of
mass customizers, and while some classifications of mass customization present great obstacles to the
application of lean manufacturing, many of its principles hold true for all manufacturers. However, mass
customizers must pay careful consideration to the individual properties of their system when
contemplating the application of lean manufacturing. One cannot simply reach into the lean toolbox and
pull out the answers to their manufacturing woes. Many consider the very idea of mass customization to
be an oxymoron, but with the increasing fragmentation of markets and desire for individualization by
consumers, there is no doubt that it is here to stay. Those companies that are able to offer this
individualization with short lead times while maintaining system efficiency will gain a profound
competitive advantage in their market, and this research has shown that for at least some classifications
of mass customizers lean manufacturing can be the answer.

Soft lean practices for successful lean

production system implementation in malaysia
automotive smes: A proposed framework
RusalbiahCheMamat
, Baba MdDeros
, MohdNizam
Ab Rahman
,Muhamad Khalil Omar
, Shukriah Abdullah
a
© 2015Penerbit UTM Press. All righ ts reserved

RusalbiahCheMamat et al. / JurnalTeknologi (Sciences& Engineering) 77:27

(2015) 145–146

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287798128_Soft_lean_practices_for_successful_lean_produ
ction_system_implementation_in_malaysia_automotive_smes_A_proposed_framework [accessed May
26, 2017].

During the introduction phase of Lean Manufacturing, it is found that most of the research articles
related to lean did not characterize the practices into hard or soft lean in the LM literature. Moreover,
during the introduction of LM, organizations greatly emphasized the lean techniques and tools rather
than the soft aspects or human elements. After a while, when lean implementation encountered
many obstacles, barriers and challenges , the researchers and scholars acknowledged that it is mostly
associated with human factors or the soft practices of lean. Moreover, recent studies on the
failure of lean implementation in a particular organization revealed that it is mostly because of
human factors i.e. The lack of top management commitment, communication, inadequate training and
many more [13], [15]. In order to classify whether the lean practices fall into soft practices, the authors
followed the recommendation of the latest research article pertaining to soft lean practices by Bartlett
et al. [22]. The study referred to the literature in a well-established discipline which is Total Quality
Management (TQM) to indicate whether or not the lean practices should be classified as soft
lean practices. TQM literature has extensively discussed the hard and soft TQM elements and practices
as compared to LM. In most of the TQM definitions, two significant aspects have been recognized, which
include the “soft” (or “philosophical”) and the “hard” (or “technical”) TQM elements [75], [85]–[88]. 4.1
Elements of Soft Lean Practices Based on the analysis of the systematic literature review, the
elements of soft lean practices have been identified as shown in Table 4. The table exhibits various
soft practices from LM literature. The lean practices that are considered “soft practices” are:
1. Top management commitment
2. Human resources management
3. Employee commitment
4. Employee involvement and empowerment
5. Supplier management
6. Customer focus
7. Training
8. Teamwork
9. Reward and recognition
10. Communication
11. Continuous improvement
Top management commitment and support are vital for the lean implementation to be
successful. Therefore, the management should be involved and supported in terms of learning and
understanding the principles of LM. Management commitment enables employees to understand the
new project of Leanimplementation. Change programmes such as Lean Manufacturing, demand high
levels of commitment and support from the management. The failure to do so might contribute
towards the difficulties in sustaining lean implementation and leads to the failure of lean
initiatives. Human resource is recognized as the most frequent soft lean practices that are utilized during
the implementation of lean. The role of the HRM in enhancing the effectiveness of lean practices
and their synergistic interactions is undeniable [90-92]. Also, LM depends very much on employees’
participation and commitment in lean activities, which are created by providing them with more
empowerment, adequate training, information and new forms of reward [93- 94].During the
implementation of any new initiative, it is necessary to provide some level of training to the
employees. Alagaraja and Egan [95] proposed that the lean implementation efforts should be
integrated with the organization of the Human Resource Development (HRD) systems, practices, and
policies. The role and value of HRD initiatives would heighten the probability of success in Lean
implementation. The relationship with external parties, or specifically both suppliers and customers are
important during the lean implementation. Companies should provide consistent feedback to
suppliers about their performance and focus on customer demand. Increased communication with
shop floor employees is also found to assist smooth transition of the lean manufacturing initiative.
Lean implementation should be regarded as a continuous effort with the efforts to increase company
performance through various hard lean practices
Jilcha K, Kitaw D (2015) Lean Philosophy for Global Competitiveness in Ethiopia Chemical Industries: Review. J
ComputSciSystBiol 8
Volume 8(6) (2015) page– 319-320
Volume 8(6) 304-321 (2015) - 320

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288021617_Lean_Philosophy_for_Global_Competitiveness_i
n_Ethiopia_Chemical_Industries_Review [accessed May 27, 2017].
Volume 8(6) 304-321 (2015) - 320

Study focused on the global competitiveness in line with lean principles and philosophy in the chemical
manufacturing industries. Global competitive has not been achieved without consideration of the fast
responsiveness, cost reduction/inventory management and differentiation. In achieving global
competitiveness of chemical industries, there are tools those increase the manufacturing industry
minimizing the overall wastes as the study showed. To be competitive in the manufacturing industries
operation, one of the tools that support waste minimization is lean philosophy. It has been found in
literature that it focuses on the elimination of waste through value stream mapping. It cuts of the non-
value adding especially unnecessary 35% operations and minimizes necessary non-value adding
activities. But it has been found that there are challenges of implementation of the lean philosophy in
manufacturing. However, one of lean tools, JIT (Just-in-Time) is a philosophy of manufacturing based on
planned elimination of waste and on continuous improvement of productivity. The primary elements of
just-in-time are to have only the required inventory when needed; to improve quality to zero defects; to
reduce lead times by reducing setup times, queue lengths and lot sizes; to incrementally revise the
operations themselves; and to accomplish these activities at minimum cost. Lean is green. Its purpose is
to reduce use of resources, to reduce waste, to reduce space and handling (energy) and to increase
output per unit of resource used. Further, it can be easily extended to nonproduction areas. Lean
recognizes that there is no positive side to waste and that reducing energy usage and emissions can
have a positive impact on cash flow.
Global competitiveness in chemical industries is very important initiatives when lean tools are properly
utilized. The lean thinking in chemical industries are not yet diffused due to many reasons identified in
the literature. Ethiopia has no satisfactory industries to push through and say use lean philosophy.
However, it is very important to note that the chemical industries development is initiated by the
government and it lets allow them to practice lean just in time of establishment. The chemical
manufacturing performance indicators parameter exercised weakness are an indication of non-existing
of lean philosophy. As a result of this the competitiveness of Ethiopian chemical manufacturing
industries are very weak and almost null. As in the Ethiopia plastic industry case also illustrated that with
process problems in production and absent of JIT, on time delivery, value mapping stream processing,
and the other lean tools are burden the company to cost more scrap cost and time waste costs. the lean
tools absenteeism in chemical industry resulted in more reworks, inventory, large lead time, customer
dissatisfaction, loss of productivity and stepping down in general. As a result of this, the GDP
contribution of the chemical industry has been found that almost null.

Lean Manufacturing Tool and Techniques in Process Industry

Sharma Neha et al. IJSRR 2013, 2(1), page 62

The current level of lean implementation in industries is examined. It also showed that certain
Techniques could work universally. It has been concluded that major manufacturing industries have
been trying to adopt manufacturing initiatives in order to stay alive in the new competitive
market place .Lean manufacturing is one of these initiatives that focus on cost reduction by
identifying and eliminating on value added activities .In Indian industry a lot of scope is there to
improve inventory control, reduce lead time, set-up timer which will lead to competitiveness of Indian
industry

Lean Manufacturing: Implementation and assessment

in the Lebanese Pharmaceutical Industry
Marianne Khlat
, Atef H. Harb
andAbdallahKassem
Int. Journal of Computing and Optimization, Vol. 1, 2014, no. 2, 47 – 62

http://dx.doi.org/10.12988/ijco.2014.433

The results showed that lean tools are somehow applicable in the production cycle;
Standardization is among the tools the most used and Just-in-time is the tool that employees are not
adopting very well due to lots of documentations and delays in the process. Furthermore, the results
showed a relationship between the application of these lean tools and the effectiveness and
productivity of the company in the opinion of the team members whereas managers do not
believe that this relationship is so tight. This is linked to the fact that cGMPrequirements regulate all the
process and they consume a lot oftime. According to the managers, the cGMP requirements are the
basic tools of quality and they are fundamental even if the work isdelayed in some cases. Doing the
job in a faster way without adhering to cGMP is not a guarantee for effectiveness and efficiency.
The challenge of a pharmaceutical industry is to try implementing lean tools in its strategy while
following all cGMP rules and regulations in order not to get penalties. In fact, there should be a balance
between lean and GMP for a better performance of the work because lean is essential for cost reduction
and waste elimination and GMP is also essential in order to keep the best quality of medication
especially that we are delivering the products to ill patients who are seeking to get healed.

IMPLEMENTING LEAN IN A MEDIUM SCALE INDUSTRY:A CASE STUDY AT COUNTRY CONE ENTERPRISES
LIMITED- GHANA
ERIC OFORI-NTOW JNR
SEPTEMBER, 2011
Page 34
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:453189/FULLTEXT01.pdf

In conclusion, this thesis has been able to unearth some of the major manufacturing waste
within the company’s production system such as large inventory, over production, inadequate
maintenance and so on. All the same with the above mentioned wastes, Country Cone
Enterprise Limited has been able to grow in size and market. In spite of these achievements
customers always have to negotiate on when their orders can be delivered due to lack of
communication and teamwork on the part of employees. This issue can be solved by the
cooperation of all parties within the business cycle. Suppliers, employees and customers have to
agree on how to perform their respective tasks to avoid delay and other manufacturing wastes
for the benefit of all parties.
A case study on implementing lean ergonomic manufacturing systems (LEMS) in an
automobile industry
IOP Publishing IConAMMA-2016
C. Cantini, L. Epprecht, A. Gendotti et al.
(http://iopscience.iop.org/1757-899X/149/1/012081)

Continuous improvement process is getting adopted by the various companies, due to

the increase in the competitiveness in the global marketing. Lean manufacturing is a very
powerful tool for the improvements in the industry. The integration of Ergonomics during
the lean manufacturing implementation has the potential to obtain substantial gains in
productivity and to simultaneously improve the working conditions. The model of a
framework regarding the integration of Ergonomics and lean manufacturing systems based
on the various tools was presented. The proposed framework associates to the lean
manufacturing system procedures used in each phase of the ergonomic tools and
methodologies introducing an additional ergonomic perspective

Process Cycle Efficiency Improvement Through Lean: A Case Study

International Journal of Lean Thinking Volume 2, Issue 1 (June 2011)

Lean Thinking journal homepage: www.thinkinglean.com/ijlt
http://thinkinglean.com/img/files/020203m.pdf

This present work provides a case study of the improvement of a construction equipment

company non value added activities by means of lean tools. It focuses the revamp of operations

by eliminating non value-added time and improving cycle efficiency through VSM. It can be

concluded that VSM is an effective tool for identifying the processing wastes.

Increasing Production and Eliminating Waste through Lean Tools and Techniques for Halal Food
Companies

Sustainability 2014, 6, 9179-9204; doi:10.3390/su6129179

file:///C:/Users/Maybel/Downloads/sustainability-06-09179.pdf

These results show that the important tools of LSC implementation include demand collaboration,
continuous improvement, inventory management practices, value-added activities, waste reduction,
company and industry standard, human resource, data standard, planning and production process
standardization, sales and operations planning, and demand signal. However, most companies aim for
the full implementation of demand collaboration, inventory management, and value-added activities
tools at the highest rate, which indicates the importance of adapting these activities across the supply
chain. First-stage adoption partners must jointly participate in demand analysis before the
implementation of visibility systems and processes for inventory. Collaborative practices must be
actively performed at all stages of LSC adoption. Companies have little interest in adopting sales and
operations planning activities across the whole supply chain. Most companies intend to develop their
sales and operation planning individually. Companies should utilize POS data and implement this
practice across the entire supply chain because of the benefits of information sharing and use of POS
data. This study shows that Malaysian Halal food companies do not succeed in the adoption of LSC
practices. These companies manage their activities individually regardless of supply chain benefits.
These findings indicate the unfamiliarity of these companies with the concept of lean adaption and their
lack of full understanding of the goal of supply chain. Human resources, which include worker training,
employee involvement in LSC implementation, team decision-making, and cross-functional teams, are
not important practices in LSC implementation. Thus, the lack of quality system adoption in some
companies can be attributed to human resources. The appropriate treatment of workers encourages
them to participate in the adoption of new systems to avoid system failure. Proper forecasting systems
for demand management are not deployed and are mostly focused on pushed systems instead of pulling
systems. Less attention is afforded to the use of standard data, which causes serious issues, especially in
information sharing. Most of these companies do not have a comprehensive system for the
development of standard products, which can help them decrease human error and risk of failure during
design, molding, production, and packaging. However, continuous improvement systems have gained
considerable attention from these companies. Thus, this tool is expected to overcome various issues.
However, the results did not meet this expectation and showed several shortcomings. Therefore, these
supply chains were not fully successful in its implementation despite the existence of a continuous
improvement culture. These supply chains must expand their decision-making and practices. Some
findings of the study require further research. First, the effect of LSC implementation tools and
techniques on the improvement of company performance can be further studied. Another area that
requires further exploration is the examination of barriers to the implementation of LSC practices and
the possibility of recovering these issues. The sample used in this study consisted of respondents from
Halal food industries in Malaysia. Future researchers may conduct a similar study not only in Malaysian
industries but also in other Islamic countries.

Lean Manufacturing Implementation in Malaysian Automotive Components Manufacturer: a Case

Study
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011 Vol I WCE 2011, July 6 - 8, 2011, London, U.K.
RasliMuslimen, Sha’riMohdYusof, Ana Sakura ZainalAbidin

MaliheManzouri 1, MohdNizamAb-Rahman 1,*, CheRosmawatiCheMohd Zain 2 and EzadAzraaiJamsari 3

The purpose of this study was to investigate how to implement and what approach to be used in order
to implement lean manufacturing in Malaysian automotive components manufacturer. The findings
from the interview session with semi-structured and open-ended questionnaire shows that the case
study company used the project based approach in implementing lean manufacturing. They form a team
with five full-time members, determine a model line, and did the continuous improvements effort until
the model line was stabled. In their LM implementation project, they focus on reducing the level of
inventory as the mother of the other wastes. After they reduce the inventory level, the other wastes has
been highlighted and continuously reduce. The other wastes are over production, waiting times,
excessive transportation, excessive processing, excessive motion, and defected products. In order to
conduct the lean manufacturing projects, they have full support and clear direction from top
management level especially from their president of the company. They have proper planning through
their LM approach and implemented by the five full-time members that produce the full-time results.
They follow the same approach in another area after having completed the first LM implementation
project. As a result of LM implementation effort by this case study company, in year 2007 this company
has been awarded as Toyota Production System Model Company by MAJAICO. As a lean production
system model company, this company has become a reference and role model in implementing lean
manufacturing for other manufacturing companies in Malaysia. Future work will involve presenting the
next stage of LM implementation approach by this company towards sustaining lean manufacturing
implementation

REDUCTION OF DELAY IN INSPECTION OF LOCAL & IMPORTED PARTS AT MITSUBISHI MOTORS

PHILIPPINES CORP
Billones, Ivan Michael C.
January 2010
Page 76

The study had effectively analyzed the MMPC Delivery system. It was concluded that the
MMPC delivery system needs improvement in terms of operations and strict implementation of
the system. The researcher had identified the causes of 33% delay in inspection of Local &
Imported parts for Just-in-time deliveries by using a Time study measurement and Why-why
analysis applications. The primary cause of delay is the bottleneck operation for element no.4
of the Delivery system which is the issuance of Inspection Instruction of Material Handling to
the Inspection office.